

I hiked this trail in Spring 2016 and again in Fall 2017. Then I hiked my own version of it in 2019. I had fun. If I make it look easy, keep in mind I’m tough as nails.
From the back cover of the book that started it all:
Traversing six national parks (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Zion), a national recreation area, a national monument, and various wilderness, primitive, and wilderness study areas, the Hayduke Trail is a challenging, 800-mile backcountry route on the Colorado Plateau. Whimsically named for a character in Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, the trail begins in Arches National Park and ends in Zion National Park, stays entirely on public land, and traverses the complete variety of terrain available to hikers on the Plateau short of technical climbing.
Joe Mitchell and Mike Coronella pioneered Hayduke after concluding that a long trail—such as the Appalachian or Pacific Crest— was possible on the Plateau, thus introducing more people to these unique and threatened public lands. The Hayduke Trail includes detailed maps of the entire route, suggested cache points, and a wealth of description and tips for tackling this intense undertaking.
Sunset on the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. It is here that the river loops into a perfect near figure 8 shape, separated by tall slivers of rock wall. It looks great on the map, too. I’d seen the Loop in books and calendars; it was something else to climb up there in person. Wowy.
There’s LTE in the middle of nowhere and we got tons of rain and snow last night in Canyonlands so you get an update. None of that snow was there yesterday.